Substitutional limit of gadolinium in β ‐tricalcium phosphate and its magnetic resonance imaging characteristics

To compensate the limitations of bone tissue magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a series of gadolinium (Gd 3+ ) substituted β ‐Tricalcium phosphate [ β ‐TCP, β ‐Ca 3 (PO 4 ) 2 ] were developed. All the powders were characterized using XRD, Raman spectroscopy, Rietveld refinement of the XRD data and the studies confirmed the Gd 3+ occupancy at Ca 2+ (1), Ca 2+ (2) and Ca 2+ (3) lattice sites of β ‐Ca 3 (PO 4 ) 2. HR‐TEM analysis revealed the spherical nature of particles with diameter about 100 nm. The Gd 3+ doped β ‐Ca 3 (PO 4 ) 2 exhibited non‐toxic behaviour to MG‐63 cells in vitro and the room temperature magnetic field versus magnetization measurements confirmed its paramagnetic behaviour. MRI analysis revelas that it shorten both T 1 and T 2 proton relaxation times, thus influencing both r 1 and r 2 relaxivity values that reach 61.97 m M −1 s −1 and 73.35 m M −1 s −1 . © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 105B: 2545–2552, 2017.